In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, Secrecy and Survival

By John Doughill

The story of Japan's hidden Christians is the subject of a major motion picture by director Martin Scorsese, based on Shusaku Endo's famous novel, Silence.

From the time the first Christian missionary arrived in Japan in 1549 to when a nationwide ban was issued in 1614, over 300,000 Japanese were converted to Christianity. A vicious campaign of persecution forced the faithful to go underground. For seven generations, Hidden Christians--or Kirishitan--preserved a faith that was strictly forbidden on pain of death. Illiterate peasants handed down the Catholicism that had been taught to their ancestors despite having no Bible or contact with the outside world.

Just as remarkably, descendants of the Hidden Christians continue to this day to practice their own religion, refusing to rejoin the Catholic Church. Why? And what is it about Christianity that is so antagonistic to Japanese culture? In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians is an attempt to answer these questions. A journey in both space and time, In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians recounts a clash of civilizations--of East and West--that resonates to this day and offers insights about the tenacity of belief and unchanging aspects of Japanese culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462905799

Book preview

IN SEARCH OF

JAPAN’S HIDDEN

CHRISTIANS

Also by John Dougill:

Gentlemen and Hooligans: The British in Film, 1921–1971

Kyoto: A Cultural History

Oxford in English Literature

IN SEARCH OF

JAPAN’S HIDDEN

CHRISTIANS

A STORY OF SUPPRESSION,

SECRECY AND SURVIVAL

JOHN DOUGILL

TUTTLE Publishing

Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

The Tuttle Story: Books to Span the East and West

Most people are very surprised to learn that the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia had its beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company’s founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his first love was naturally books—especially old and rare editions.

Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry, and founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which still thrives today as one of the world’s leading independent publishers.

Though a westerner, Charles was hugely instrumental in bringing a knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 titles on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese.

With a backlist of 1,500 books, Tuttle Publishing is as active today as at any time in its past—inspired by Charles’ core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

www.tuttlepublishing.com

Copyright © 2012 by John Dougill

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dougill, John.

In search of Japan’s hidden Christians : a story of suppression,

secrecy, and survival / John Dougill. —1st ed.

       p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-4629-0579-9 (ebook)

1. Crypto-Christians—Japan. 2. Japan—Church history. 3.

Christianity—Japan. 4. Catholic Church— Japan—History. I. Title.

   BX1668.D68 2012

   282’.5209—dc23

2011027419

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For the late Hal Gold, who first gave me the idea

In Japanese history there is no more attractive or interesting period than that of the Kirishitan, especially as it makes us think about what it is to be a human being.

— Endo Shusaku (translated by Peter Milward)

Contents

Preface

In 1549 the first Christian missionaries arrived in Japan. Over the next sixty years the mission managed to convert more than 300,000 Japanese to their belief, including some of the most powerful people in the country. But in the process they made enemies too, and in 1614 a nationwide ban was issued, followed by a vicious campaign of persecution. A religion that preached against the workings of evil was itself denounced as evil. Because it threatened the power of the shogun, torture and executions were used against believers as the authorities grew increasingly determined to make them recant. Over 4,000 people are known to have died for their faith, and thousands of others suffered misery and ruination. In 1639 the country was sealed to prevent contagion from the outside, and by the end of the next decade it seemed the religion had been eradicated from the country.

For over two hundred years Japan remained a closed society, except for Chinese traders and a handful of Dutch at Nagasaki. Only in 1854 was it prised open again. Eleven years later came an astonishing revelation: groups of villagers, mostly illiterate, had continued to practice Christianity in secret despite all the preventative measures put in place. For seven generations they had passed the religion down to their children despite having no Bible, no priests, and no sacraments except for baptism. Isolated and imperiled, they clung to their faith, and the result was often unorthodox. Remarkably, even after the toleration of Christianity, about half refused to rejoin the Catholic Church and carried on with the rituals and prayers taught to them as children. Some of their descendants still do.

On the other side of the world, a curious parallel to the Hidden Christians could be found in the secret Jews of the Iberian Peninsula. Ironically, Christians were doing the persecuting rather than being persecuted, and it was happening in the very countries from which the missionaries had left for Japan. When the Jews were ordered to convert to Catholicism or be expelled in 1492, it’s thought that up to 200,000 subsequently became Marranos—Christian converts who were secret practitioners of Judaism. Some of the families continued the practice into modern times, and a documentary entitled The Last Marranos was made as late as 1997.

Like the Marranos, the Hidden Christians are bound up with issues that extend beyond religion to race and identity. In Japan’s case, it had much to do with the clash of East and West, for the Confucian and Socratic traditions had produced different ways of thinking that were compounded by the contrast between East Asian polytheism and Christian monotheism. What happened when representatives of the two cultures first met? Having spent the greater part of my adult life in Japan, I was naturally intrigued by the question, and my interest was fueled by reading Endo Shusaku’s compelling novel, Silence (1966). When I learned of the tenacity with which Japanese peasants had clung to the European faith, I couldn’t help wondering what had motivated them to risk death and the ruination of their loved ones. In unpacking the answer to that question, I had the feeling that I would be picking at the very essence of the culture.

The coming of the missionaries to Japan has much in common with the spread of early Christianity. When Paul arrived in Corinth, there were well-established pagan deities and a huge temple to Apollo, the Sun God. When Francis Xavier arrived in Japan, there was not only a well-established religion in Buddhism but an array of native deities headed by Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. Paul traveled around the Aegean, setting up groups that met in private houses and to whom he addressed long letters. Xavier and his fellow missionaries did much the same thing, writing long reports on their activities back to Rome. In both cases the religion won a following by offering dignity to the dispossessed and salvation in a world to come. For societies in which most of the population was downtrodden and desperate, the message of spiritual equality proved liberating.

For those in power, the message was anything but liberating: it was threatening. In Rome believers refused to participate in pagan festivities or public sacrifices to the emperor. In Japan allegiance to the Church clashed with allegiance to the shogun. In both cases the religion came to be seen as subversive, resulting in persecution and crucifixion. One vital difference was the conversion of Constantine in the early fourth century, following which Christianity was able to flourish. Japan too almost had its Constantine moment, but when it failed to materialize, things developed in a very different direction and Hidden Christians became the faith’s last refuge.

In mulling over why they had risked so much for an imported faith, I came to see the Hidden Christians in terms of a mirror image. Here was I, a European interested in Japanese spirituality: they on the other hand were Japanese attracted to a European religion. As I came to reflect on the nature of the mirror, I felt a compulsion to see for myself the cutting edge of the culture clash that had taken place. In this way I would surely come to understand more fully the country in which I had chosen to make my home. In short, I was hoping to do more than uncover Hidden Christians: I was hoping to journey deeper into Japan, past and present.

But if I was to go in search of Hidden Christians, it had to be done soon, for surviving practitioners were few in number. Writing in 2003, Miyazaki Kentaro estimated that there were only 1,000 to 1,500 practitioners left, most of whom were elderly. Because of a lack of interest by the younger generation, there was no fresh blood and baptisms had all but stopped. Clearly, there was little time to waste, but where was I to start? The obvious answer was at the very beginning, and so one fine day in 2010 I set out from my home in Kyoto for a faraway island of which I knew nothing. Like all good stories, the encounter of East and West had started with a chance happening.

Acknowledgments

Among the many people who rendered assistance, I’d like to express my gratitude to the people below for their help with feedback and input. My thanks to all of them. In addition, I would like to express appreciation for the unsung curators and academic advisors at the various collections that I visited in Kyushu and Azuchi, as well as the local guides. They were unfailingly kind and helpful, making the whole venture a pleasure from beginning to end.

Martin Repp, my former colleague at Ryukoku University, for casting an expert eye on the manuscript

Paul Carty and Julie Highmore for taking the time to read through chapters and offer advice

Roger Vanzila Munsi in the Faculty of Foreign Studies, Nanzan University, who helped with the Sotome chapter

Christal Whelan, who read through the Goto chapter

Kirk Sandvig, who gave feedback on the Goto and Sotome sections

Yuriko Suzuki, who acted as research assistant and chauffeur, as well as providing backup

Professor Higashibaba of Tenri University, who allowed me to attend his class and took the trouble to answer my questions

Miyazaki Kentaro, who spared time for me at his office in Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University

William Johnston, the translator of Silence, who answered questions following a talk he gave in Kyoto

Nakazono Shigeo of the Ikitsuki Museum, who generously made time to guide me around the exhibition

Urabe Tomoyuki of the Hirado Museum, who was kind enough to answer questions and provide valuable contacts

Kawakami Shigetsugu, who devoted an afternoon to showing me around Neshiko and the Hirado Christian Museum

Timeline

Note: Kirishitan is a term used to refer to Catholics in Japan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Following the time of persecution, it was used in the expression Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians).

Japanese Eras

Jomon (13,000 to c.300 BC) Hunter-gatherers, fishing and pottery

Yayoi (c.300 BC–c.300 AD) Rice culture, iron, independent countries, and Himiko (shaman queen)

Kofun (c.300–538) Burial mounds; emergence of Yamato hegemony and emperor system

Asuka (538–710) Buddhism and Chinese influences; first constitution under Prince Shotoku

Nara (710–794) First permanent capital. Building of Todaiji.

Heian (794–1186) An aristocratic age with rule by the emperor from Heian-kyo (Kyoto)

Kamakura (1186–1333) Beginning of samurai rule, with a military leader (shogun) in Kamakura

Muromachi (1333–1573) Ashikaga dynasty rules from Kyoto; central power collapses in Period of Warring States (Sengoku Period)

Azuchi-Momoyama (1573–1600) Unification under Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi

Edo (1600–1867) Tokugawa rule and an age of isolationism

Meiji (1868–1912) Restoration of the emperor in the newly named Tokyo. Westernization and modernization

Taisho (1912–26) Industrial growth and imperialism

Showa (1926–89) Militarism, World War Two, and the postwar economic miracle

Heisei (1989–present) Economic bubble; aging society and rural depopulation

IN SEARCH OF

JAPAN’S HIDDEN

CHRISTIANS

A map showing the sites of these events can be found on page 2.

Prelude

(Tanegashima)

Southern Barbarians

You see where the beach ends?

Yes.

And you see the stretch of rocks.

Yes.

That’s where it happened. That’s where the ship landed. Right there, according to island folklore.

We’re standing on the southernmost tip of Tanegashima, Japan’s sixth biggest island. It lies to the south of Kyushu, in the direction of Okinawa. In front of us a pleasant bay stretches away into the distance, the blue of the sea offset by golden sand and a green-tinged shoreline. This is where the South China Sea meets the Pacific. Westward lies the island of Yakushima and beyond it China; to the east, far, far away, America. There’s no one else around on this sunny autumn morning, and a flock of mejiro are chirping noisily among the nearby trees. Surprisingly, my guide and I have this scenic site all to ourselves.

The ship we’re talking about is the one that brought the first Europeans to Japan. They arrived in 1543 in the form of two (possibly three) Portuguese merchants aboard a Chinese junk. The ship was making its way along the coast of China for trading purposes when it was blown off course by a vicious storm, during which it was badly damaged and no longer able to steer a course. Left to drift with the prevailing current, it was deposited in this welcoming bay at Cape Kadokura. In this way, through the whims of the weather, history was made.

A scaled-down replica of the junk stands on the headland, and you can see why it would have wanted to hug the coastline, for the curious box-like shape must have stood high in the water and was clearly unsuited to ocean-going. The original, some two hundred to three hundred tons in size, had approximately one hundred men on board, no doubt squeezed into cramped conditions. When it was seen by the locals, there was great excitement and the village head was summoned to talk to the captain. Though they had no common language, they were able to communicate by drawing Chinese characters in the sand. The odd clothing, large eyes and high noses of the exotic Europeans soon aroused interest, for the Japanese had seen nothing like them. They not only looked different but behaved differently, and in response to questions the villagers were told that the men were Southern Barbarians. The name derived from the Chinese custom of calling all foreigners barbarians, distinguished only by the direction from which they came. (The Portuguese had arrived from Malacca in western Malaya.)

At the time, Japan lay on the outermost edge of European consciousness. Ever since Marco Polo wrote of the great gold rumored to be in Zipangu, it had held a fascination for explorers, and though Christopher Columbus made it one of his objectives, his voyages had taken him to other shores. Not long afterwards, Spain and Portugal divided up the world under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). A line down the Atlantic separated the colonial powers: Spain took everything to the west, Portugal to the east. South America (apart from Brazil) fell into the Spanish sphere, and Asia belonged to the Portuguese. Accordingly, as Spanish conquistadors battled Aztecs and Incas, the Portuguese made their way around the coasts of Africa and across the Indian Ocean. In 1498 Vasco de Gama reached India for the first time, and in 1510 his compatriots seized Goa. The following year they captured Malacca. By 1513 they had arrived in China, and by 1521 the Philippines. It seemed just a matter of time before they reached Japan. The surprise is that it took so long.

When the arrival of the Chinese junk was reported to the fifteen-year-old lord of Tanegashima, he ordered the villagers to tow the ship to the main port in the north of the island. The crew was put up in a temple while an assessment of the ship was made. Attention was soon aroused by the peculiar long firearms the Portuguese had, and a demonstration was arranged at which the target was hit from a distance of some hundred yards. To borrow a phrase, it was a shot that was heard around Japan. Western technology had arrived with a bang.

The colorful adventurer Mendes Pinto (c.1509–83) wrote a self-aggrandizing memoir for his children in which he described being thirteen times made captive and seventeen times sold in exploits that ranged from Ethiopia to the Far East. Among his claims was that of being on the Tanegashima junk, and in his account he wrote that the local lord had been presented with a musket in return for his hospitality after being impressed by the Portuguese shooting ducks. However, the memoirs are known to be unreliable, and it is almost certain that Pinto went to Japan on a later ship and wanted to write himself into the discovery of the country. The similarity of Mendes with mendacious has not gone unnoticed.

Realizing the power of the new weapon, the Tanegashima lord immediately ordered the making of a copy. He was able to do this because there was already a concentration of smiths on the island, thanks to the black sand on the beaches, which was rich in iron particles. The smiths had a reputation for high-quality swords and knives; even today Tanebasami is a brand name for handmade scissors, and Kyoto chefs still use Tanegashima knives for their exquisite kaiseki dishes. How long it took to complete the musket is uncertain, but after four months the young lord felt bold enough to seize control of the neighboring island. It’s tempting to presume this was the first instance of gun law in Japan, but in his book Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan, Olof Lidin supposes the musket was only perfected at a later date because of technical difficulties concerning the fitting of a screw. Thereby hangs an island tale, which my guide was eager to tell me.

This is Wakasa, he said, pointing at a statue near the island’s port. It showed a young woman in kimono with a musket nestled in her arms. "There are two versions of her story. One says that the smith making the musket could not manage to complete the job, so to get the information he needed about the screw he sold his daughter to a Portuguese man who came on a later ship. And then he could complete the musket. You know, he had responsibility to make a copy of the musket, so if

Reviews for In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians

[missizicks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. Professor Dougill's writing style feels like a conversation rather than a lecture. The book was easy to read and a good popular history clearly backed up with academic research and oral testimony from local people. My kind of historian! The author's personal insights were interesting, particularly on comparisons between religions. The tone was non-judgemental, questioning rather than didactic, and I thought that the travelogue style suited the story well, visiting the locations where the story unfurled, talking to local people, trying to find the remains of sites, seeing modern day memorials to the West's attempts to convert Japan to a different religion.The preface made a good comparison between Pauline missionary activity at the start of the Christian church and missionary activity in Japan in 16th cent. I was taken with the parallels the author drew between the two eras, especially his perspective on the offer of equality through spirituality to the dispossessed and downtrodden, and the threat perceived by the ruling classes in both the Roman empire and Shogunate Japan. The idea that the lack of a figure like Constantine in Japan meant eradication of the faith was easier was an interesting one.Professor Dougill also provides a useful timeline and breakdown of Japanese eras at the beginning, which helped put the story into a historical and political context.I especially liked the context of what was going on in Japan politically - how the arrival of the Portuguese Jesuits was seized on by the shogun and daimyos as an opportunity to increase trade, and how the Jesuits used the offer of trade to make converts. The subsequent persecution under the Hideyoshi and Tokugawa regimes was also set within the context of political power and the shoguns' desire to maintain absolute power over a unified Japan, leading ultimately to the policy of isolationism.There were some interesting thoughts on the feminine qualities of Japanese religion and culture (the sanctification of the mother, the adoption of the Virgin Mary as another version of Kannon), allied with social character of Japan (infantilisation of Japanese men, kawaii culture), with a link made to the nature of the Hidden Christian sub-religion and why the Virgin Mary became the focus of worship, not God or Christ.I read the book to learn more about a curious aspect of Japan's history. I learnt a lot about those early years of trade with the Portuguese and why they were the dominant Western influence on Japan at that time (the loan words for bread and trousers, パン and ズボン, have Portuguese origins, and two cakes I've had in Japan are Portuguese), plus one reason behind why Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to close Japan off to the rest of the world. As someone with a vague interest in spirituality and why some people feel the need to connect with a higher power or powers, but who lacks in depth knowledge, I found the discussion of the different religions in Japan helpful in understanding how Buddhism and Shinto co-exist without apparently dominating Japanese society in the way Judaism, Christianity and Islam do their cultures/societies. The Japanese ability to assimilate different belief systems is very different to Western Christianity! I even learnt a little about the character of some Japanese through Professor Dougill's encounters with people on Kyushu and the surrounding islands where Christianity took its own peculiar hold.Over all, I thought the book was an accessible way to understand Japanese history quickly. To my shame, my copy of Jansen's modern history of Japan is still unread on my bookshelves. The story of Japan's Hidden Christians, I expect, won't be covered in that book anyway. It's sad to think of the traditions dying out, after 400 years of upholding the way of life of those who were persecuted for their faith. As happens often in our global, capitalist, connected times, tradition is losing its relevance and the current generations are losing interest in the beliefs of their parents and grandparents. They are creating their own way of living that carries them through daily life. John Dougill wrote a good book that documents the history of this faith and the families that carried it across centuries just in time before it could disappear completely.